Mount Auburn Cemetery

DatePossibly ca 1853.

Attributed to Jenny Emily (Merriman?) Snow (active ca. 1850)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, Hinsdale (possibly)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 34" x 42 1/8". Unframed: 28 1/8" x 36 1/4" (71.4 cm x 92.1 cm.)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.102.2

DescriptionLandscape--heavy use of oil impasto. There is a figure eight-shaped pond in center with flowers growing at bottom of it near canvas edge. At the far end of the pond are two rectangular tombs and one with pitched roof. Trees and vines grow up hills on either side of the pond, and various shapes and sizes of grey tombstones are visible. The colors dark and somber--trees, green leaves, dark colors and slight touches of yellow in trees. There is a small water fountain in lower right corner, and a man dressed in black walks past it. A tiny lady dressed in a grey dress with yellow border, forming the shape of a triangle is visible in woods to left. People are vaguely seen walking up hill behind tombstones at the end of the pond, and trees in distance have white-ish leaves. A group of three people are dimly visible in the woods at the top of the hill to the right of the pond.
Period replacement 3 1/2-inch gilded molded frame.
Label TextThe Folk Art Center owns two other paintings that have been ascribed to Jenny Emily Snow, but thus far, research has failed to confirm any of the facts of the artist's life.

MOUNT AUBURN CEMETERY's dark tonality and lugubrious color scheme are in accord with the nature of the subject. Blacks, browns, grays, and dark greens contribute to an air of gloom and oppressiveness built by towering, densely-leaved trees and thick, ground level foliage. Little light penetrates the mournful space of Snow's painting, and one feels no breath of air stirs there either.

Yet this interpretation contrasts sharply with what is known of the origins of the actual cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mount Auburn was enclosed and consecrated by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1831 as one of the first "rural" or "park" cemeteries to be laid out on a large scale and along a pre-arranged plan. Effort was made to create a place of natural beauty which would promote reflection among visitors. In MOUNT AUBURN ILLUSTRATED, Cornelia Walter wrote "Rural burial-places are depositories worthy an advanced Christianity; and, as there can be nothing about them to minister to low gratification, but everything to exalt and purify the mind, they are undoubtedly as favorable to morals as to the indulgence of refined taste." The engraved source used by Snow also appears in this 1847 volume. Both print and oil show Forest Pond bordered by Narcissus Path, a particularly noted beauty spot of the park.
ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrell George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAC's vendor.